


I Was Searching

by circusgymgirl



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:40:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24706225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/circusgymgirl/pseuds/circusgymgirl
Summary: Jordan climbs a wall and discovers whole world.





	I Was Searching

I reach up to grasp the next handhold. This is higher than I’ve ever been before, and every time I manage to find another piece of rock to grasp, I worry it will be the last. That this is where I will run out of luck. I jamb my left foot and then my right into crevices maybe a foot above where they were before, and shift my weight up, staying as close to the wall as I can. 

I feel my backpack shift against my back, almost throwing me off balance. But I grip the wall harder and press myself into it and manage not to tumble off the wall to what would surely be my death. 

I reach up keeping my eyes on the rock directly in front of me. I worry that looking up will throw off my balance. I can’t find a hand hold. The rock is rough and unforgiving against my palm. After about a minute of grappling around, I’m forced to look up. That’s when I see the ledge. It’s just a few inches out of my grasp. But if I can get my feet up to the next footholds, I’ll be able to reach it. 

Before I move my feet, though, I make the mistake of glancing behind me. All I can see below me is the outline of a town and the straight wall of rock I’ve been climbing for the last couple of hours. 

In all the times I’ve climbed here, I’ve never worried about falling. Even when I was high enough that the fall would kill me, I felt safest pressed against the stone, far away from everyone on the ground. 

But something about this height feels scary. For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to climb over the wall. Back before I knew if the wall ended, I wanted to climb it, all the way to the top. Maybe even over. But here in the middle, where I can barely see the vague outline of where the wall ends both up and down, it’s harder to visualize making it that much further. One day, hopefully. But I don’t know how much longer I can climb today. How much longer before I fall. If I fall, that’s it. I’ll never get another chance to get over. 

So, I’ll just get to the ledge and then head back down. 

I twist my head back to the wall and I almost just let go and fall, the shock loosening my grip for a moment, just long enough for a flash of panic. There is a head sticking out of what I thought was a solid rock wall, but can now see has an opening. 

“I’m Addria,” the head, presumably an entire person, says. She tucks a lock of bright blue hair behind her ear and extends an arm towards me. “Need a hand?” 

“I’m Jordan,” I say, reaching up to take her hand. I always refuse help. But, I’ve had more near misses in the last couple minutes than I had climbing the entire wall beforehand. So, I ignore the hit to my pride and let her pull me up, grasping the lip with my other hand as soon as I can. 

I push off the wall with my feet and nearly collapse on the ledge, realizing that this isn’t just a lip or a convenient hand hold. It’s an opening into a sort of cave.

I pull myself to my feet, every muscle protesting. Only now that I’ve stopped holding myself up can I feel just how far I pushed myself. I don’t know that I would’ve made it back down the wall without a rest. 

Addria is leaning casually against the rock wall a few feet to my right. The whole space is maybe a couple yards each way.  I meet her gaze and she squints at me. Who is she? How did she get up here? 

“I’ve never met anyone up here. I’ve certainly never seen someone come up the other side of the wall,” she says after we thoroughly assess each other. 

“This is the highest up I’ve ever been,” I tell her. “I didn’t know it was anything more than a solid rock face.” I pause, as my brain finally processes all of what she said. "Wait. The other side of the wall?” 

As much as I dreamed about climbing over the wall, I never really considered what I would find. If I would find anything. So few people even ventured far enough to find the wall, and I’d lived beside it my entire life. I knew there was a whole word stretching out one way. I never thought there might be one the other way.

“There are a few places like this,” she says, nodding. “Holes in the wall. This is the one I usually come to.” She smiles and jerks her head to an opening my eyes had barely registered before, but now I cross to it so fast Addria has to grab my hips before I go skidding out of the opening. 

“Careful,” she warns, and I blush. I’ve done enough daring things, had enough near misses, that you would think I would know to be more cautious in situations like this.

I manage a “sorry” before the view takes my breath away. 

The first thing I see is green. Green, as far as the eye can see. The tops of trees stretching out to the horizon line. I press my hands to the sides of the opening in the rock and lean out, something unidentifiable about the view tugging on my heart in a way nothing else has, ever. The sun sends rays of light out across the trees from where it’s sinking behind the edge of green. It’s gorgeous in a way I’ve never seen.

Something clicks into place. This is what I’ve been looking for all this time. This is what I was longing for when I dreamed of climbing over the wall. This is the future I yearned for without even realizing it existed. This is the world, spread out before me. 


End file.
